"This way," he said, leading Alex up the stairs.
The building smelled of mold and decay. Everything visible was covered in dust. The curtains they passed were moth eaten and torn. She knew that Morpheus wouldn't go out in the open, but this? Her thoughts on the state of the building were interrupted when he stopped quickly in front of an old wooden door with a rusty handle.
"This is it," he told her. "Go on, he won't bite."
Alex looked up at him and reached for the door handle. She turned back and looked into his eyes again, which were no longer covered by his dark sunglasses.
"You still haven't told me your name, you know." She said flatly.
He laughed and shook his head. "You just don't give up, do you? Fine, the name is Track."
"Track?" She said, an eyebrow raised. "I'm guessing that would be your alias, right?"
"Yeah, something like that, now go on, he's waiting for you and then someone can look at that arm of yours." He said, gesturing towards the door.
She turned the handle and pulled the door open, walking in slowly.
"Hello, Alex," said a deep, booming voice from across the room.
"Morpheus," she said, nearly awestruck. "An honor to meet you."
He chuckled slightly and waved his hand towards two cracked, red leather chairs. "Please, sit down."
Alex walked towards the one on the right and sat down, hearing the audible creaking of the old leather as she put her weight on it. She winced as a sharp pain went up her arm from moving it.
"I'll make this short so someone can fix you up," Morpheus told her. "I suppose that you have realized that we have been following you for some time now. And I'm sure that you know what all of this is about."
She nodded and wrapped her jacket tighter around the wound, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her. "I am. This is about the Matrix." she answered.
Morpheus nodded and continued. "The Matrix. You have been looking for its meaning for quite a time. The Matrix is all around you, Alex. It is everything that you have ever seen." He reached into a jacket pocket and took out a small, silver box and popped it open. In the reflection of his sunglasses Alex could see two pills: one red, one blue. "I give you a choice now, and once it is made the decision cannot be altered. You can take the blue pill and forget everything you have learned about the Matrix and go on with your life, or you can take the red pill and learn the truth."
He held the pills out in his open palms and she looked at them curiously. Slowly, she reached out her hand and picked up the red pill. She was about to swallow it when an agonizing pain crept through her arm, causing her to scream and collapse from the chair.
"TRINITY! CYPHER!" Called Morpheus and two people, one woman, one man, came running in the door.
The woman knelt down beside Alex, holding her injured arm up and looking at the wound. She took out a syringe from a case at her side and then swabbed near the injured area.
"Hope you don't mind shots," She said, plunging the needle into Alex's arm.
Alex inhaled sharply and held in a scream. She could see the people around her, more entering the room now. There was Track, again, the bald man who entered with the woman, a man with long hair tied back in a ponytail, and a woman with short blonde hair.
"Morpheus, we've got to get her to a hospital, she's losing a lot of blood," said the woman.
Track stepped forward and shook his head. "Trinity, hospitals ask questions. Questions mean police, and police mean agents, and I daresay she's had her fair share of those for today."
The next voice she heard was Morpheus'. "Alex, can you hear me?" He asked her.
She nodded, looking at him through tear filled eyes. It wasn't that she wanted to cry, in fact she didn't want to, but it just happened.
"Red or Blue?" he asked, somehow sounding calm through the midst of all the chaos.
"Red. I want to know the truth," Said Alex through gritted teeth and sharp gasps.
Morpheus knelt down beside her and tilted her head up. She opened her mouth and he gave her the red pill. He poured some water in her mouth to chase it down and then he and the man called Cypher lifted her off of the ground slowly. After that, she blacked out.
******************************
The next thing she knew, she was in a chair surrounded by all the same people with small diodes placed on her skin. There was a mirror beside her which she vaguely registered. She began to come to her senses more and saw that it was cracked.
"We're online," said the man with the ponytail. "Picking up the signal...Its go time."
Alex looked back at the mirror as it slowly mended itself. "That's impossible..." she said softly, touching the surface of the now unbroken glass.
She pulled her fingers away and realized that the mirror was coming back towards her. It seemed like the glass had melted without being hot, and was, in fact, quite cold. The silvery substance began to crawl up her hand, and then her arm, slowly taking over her body. A chill ran down her spine as it ran up the back of her neck. She was breathing sharply again, the mirror running down her injured arm and into the hole left by the bullet. It's going to take over my whole body, She thought. Oh, God, I'm going to drown in this shit! She tried to scream, but it was muffled as the fluid ran down the back of her throat.
******************************
She awoke in a pool of pink fluid, tubes coming out of her body. Alex thought she must've been dreaming, a nightmare. Perhaps the pill was a drug, I'm hallucinating, She told herself. She pushed herself to the top of the fluid and broke free of it, looking out at the awful sight before her. Pods, thousands, perhaps millions of them, all containing humans beings. Suddenly, the floor of her pod fell away and the fluid, and her naked, now detached, body, were sucked away. She flew through some sort of plumbing system and into a pool of something black and thick. It pulled at her as she struggled to stay above the surface. She had always been a good swimmer, but this wasn't water and for some reason, her muscles didn't want to work...
A huge metallic hand came down from the sky and picked her up. She looked at it in curiosity and fright, not sure what to do. If it was something evil, she could let go and slip out of its grasp and land back in the pool below, or continue and pray that it was not going to harm her.
"Hello, Alex. Welcome to the real world." Said a deep voice that she registered as that of Morpheus. He was in different attire, now, not like the fancy suit she had seen him in earlier. He was now dressed in plain grayish clothes, torn and tattered.
Alex lay on the cold metal floor as someone wrapped her in a rough blanket and picked up her limp form. She felt the darkness closing in on her vision, blocking out the images around her.
******************************
It was a long time before she awoke again, this time dressed in the same sort of shabby clothing worn by Morpheus. She looked at her arm and saw that there was no bullet hole, but a plug with a needle attached. She looked at it and felt it with her other hand, but didn't yet remove it. She felt the back of her bare neck and felt another plug there. She stopped wondering about herself, then, but where she was. The room was small and virtually empty, albeit herself and a small cot that she was lying on. The walls were bare metal with various pipes covering the length of the room. A door, or more a hatch, was on one of the walls to her left. She stood up and turned the valve-like handle and pushed open the door.
She looked around for any clue that would tell her where she was and what time of day. Nothing. There were massive computer screens and a circle of several strange looking chairs directly in front of her. The computers looked as if they had a virus of some sort; Green characters scrolled down the screens at a wicked fast pace, so fast that she could barely even register them as actual letters and numbers and not just streaks.
"Hiya, Alex." said a voice from behind her.
She didn't have to turn around to know that it was Track. "What is this place?" She asked him, sitting down in the chair in front of one of the screens.
"The Nebuchadnezzar." He told her.
Alex stared at him blankly. "The Neba-who?"
He laughed. "The Neb-uh-ca-nezz-er," said Track, nearly spelling it out for her.
"Ok, and what is the Nebuchadnezzar?" She asked, moving her hands towards the keyboard.
"I woudln't touch that if I were you." He said, putting his hands in his pockets.
She raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder at him.
"Oh really? Why not?" said Alex, questioning him. She was going to have her questions answered no matter what it took.
He shrugged. "Because I wouldn't want to have to explain to Tank how you messed up his control panel. Besides, shouldn't you be asleep?" He said plainly.
She shrugged, imitating his earlier moves. "I think I've slept long enough. Now, are you going to answer me, or not?"
Alex got out of the chair and approached him, standing only inches away from him and playing the "poor, defense-less, confused, spoiled brat" card in her favor.
"Ask Morpheus. He can tell you more about everything than I can." he answered.
"Surely you know your real name...can you tell me that?" she asked, looking up into his eyes.
He choked a little and then answered. "Jake. Jake O'Reilly."
"Hm, that's better. Thank you, Jake."
Their conversation was interrupted, however, when a series of alarms sounded throughout the Nebuchadnezzar.
"SENTINELS!" Yelled Jake, running out of the room to wake the others.
Soon after, they entered, led by Morpheus. The man called Tank sat down in front of the controls and punched in a few keys.
"Dammit!" he swore under his breath.
"Tank, how many?" Asked Morpheus.
He looked intensely at the screen and typed away on the keyboard, bringing up a map of the area and several machines which looked surprisingly like squid.
"About 5 of them, maybe 6," He answered. "Better get to the bridge, Captain."
Morpheus ran out, followed by Tank and one other man that she didn't know.
"Wh-what's happening?" She asked, trying futilely to appear calm.
Trinity came to her side and took her arm, leading her in the direction of her bunk. "Sentinels. I'm sure Morpheus will explain everything to you as soon as this is over. For now I want you to go to your bunk and stay there, things can get ugly up here, ok?"
Alex nodded and opened the door to her room, sideling in and sitting on her cot. She figured they were on some sort of ship, as it rocked and swayed during the ordeal. She felt herself drifting off to sleep again, despite what she had told Jake earlier near the controls. She didn't want to think about him at the moment, he was becoming a distraction. They had been so close back there, only inches apart. Despite trying to appear brave, she was afraid. She was in a new world where nothing made sense to her and all she wanted was someone to comfort her. I think I've found that person, She thought, remembering how badly she had wanted to fall back into Jake's arms and stay there for as long as possible. Get a grip, Alex, said a voice deep in the back of her mind. That's not the kind of person you are.
"Coast is clear," said Jake, standing in the door of her room.
She sat up and looked at him, her face emotionless. "Thanks, I suppose I'll be getting my answers soon?"
He looked at her, trying to search her. "Is something wrong? You weren't like this before?"
She shrugged again and leaned against the cold metal wall. To her dismay, he walked over and sat beside her.
"Do you want to tell me what's wrong or will Morpheus have to get it out of you?" He asked softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. "Look, Alex, I'm sorry if I've done something to upset you but how can I make things right if you don't tell me what's wrong?"
Alex looked at the floor, purposely avoiding his crystal gaze. "Its not you, its me," She answered simply. "You shouldn't be apologizing."
Then, for no reason at all, she felt herself growing closer to Jake, or was he coming closer to her? A second later their lips touched softly and she kissed him as if she was kissing someone for the first time. His arms wrapped around her waist and hers around his shoulders, pressing him backwards onto the cot. So much for the person I used to be, she thought, kissing him again.
"I hardly even know you," She whispered, running her fingers through his hair. "But I feel safe here. With you."
Jake leaned up and kissed her gently, and then staring into her bright green eyes.
"And at the rate you're going, you need protecting," He laughed, kissing her chapped and dry lips again. "I've already had to save your life once...C'mon, lets go see what everyone is up to."
Alex pouted, but let him roll over so that he was on top of her. He stood up and grasped her hand, pulling her up with him. He ran a hand through his hair, a futile attempt to flatten it, and opened the door again.
The deck was alive with activity; The whole crew must be out here, She thought, taking a look around.
"Ah, Alex. Glad to see that you're awake. How are you feeling?" Asked Morpheus as she and Jake stepped in.
"Fine, thank you, but confused." She answered.
"Come with me, I'll tell you everything." He said.
The building smelled of mold and decay. Everything visible was covered in dust. The curtains they passed were moth eaten and torn. She knew that Morpheus wouldn't go out in the open, but this? Her thoughts on the state of the building were interrupted when he stopped quickly in front of an old wooden door with a rusty handle.
"This is it," he told her. "Go on, he won't bite."
Alex looked up at him and reached for the door handle. She turned back and looked into his eyes again, which were no longer covered by his dark sunglasses.
"You still haven't told me your name, you know." She said flatly.
He laughed and shook his head. "You just don't give up, do you? Fine, the name is Track."
"Track?" She said, an eyebrow raised. "I'm guessing that would be your alias, right?"
"Yeah, something like that, now go on, he's waiting for you and then someone can look at that arm of yours." He said, gesturing towards the door.
She turned the handle and pulled the door open, walking in slowly.
"Hello, Alex," said a deep, booming voice from across the room.
"Morpheus," she said, nearly awestruck. "An honor to meet you."
He chuckled slightly and waved his hand towards two cracked, red leather chairs. "Please, sit down."
Alex walked towards the one on the right and sat down, hearing the audible creaking of the old leather as she put her weight on it. She winced as a sharp pain went up her arm from moving it.
"I'll make this short so someone can fix you up," Morpheus told her. "I suppose that you have realized that we have been following you for some time now. And I'm sure that you know what all of this is about."
She nodded and wrapped her jacket tighter around the wound, feeling a wave of dizziness wash over her. "I am. This is about the Matrix." she answered.
Morpheus nodded and continued. "The Matrix. You have been looking for its meaning for quite a time. The Matrix is all around you, Alex. It is everything that you have ever seen." He reached into a jacket pocket and took out a small, silver box and popped it open. In the reflection of his sunglasses Alex could see two pills: one red, one blue. "I give you a choice now, and once it is made the decision cannot be altered. You can take the blue pill and forget everything you have learned about the Matrix and go on with your life, or you can take the red pill and learn the truth."
He held the pills out in his open palms and she looked at them curiously. Slowly, she reached out her hand and picked up the red pill. She was about to swallow it when an agonizing pain crept through her arm, causing her to scream and collapse from the chair.
"TRINITY! CYPHER!" Called Morpheus and two people, one woman, one man, came running in the door.
The woman knelt down beside Alex, holding her injured arm up and looking at the wound. She took out a syringe from a case at her side and then swabbed near the injured area.
"Hope you don't mind shots," She said, plunging the needle into Alex's arm.
Alex inhaled sharply and held in a scream. She could see the people around her, more entering the room now. There was Track, again, the bald man who entered with the woman, a man with long hair tied back in a ponytail, and a woman with short blonde hair.
"Morpheus, we've got to get her to a hospital, she's losing a lot of blood," said the woman.
Track stepped forward and shook his head. "Trinity, hospitals ask questions. Questions mean police, and police mean agents, and I daresay she's had her fair share of those for today."
The next voice she heard was Morpheus'. "Alex, can you hear me?" He asked her.
She nodded, looking at him through tear filled eyes. It wasn't that she wanted to cry, in fact she didn't want to, but it just happened.
"Red or Blue?" he asked, somehow sounding calm through the midst of all the chaos.
"Red. I want to know the truth," Said Alex through gritted teeth and sharp gasps.
Morpheus knelt down beside her and tilted her head up. She opened her mouth and he gave her the red pill. He poured some water in her mouth to chase it down and then he and the man called Cypher lifted her off of the ground slowly. After that, she blacked out.
******************************
The next thing she knew, she was in a chair surrounded by all the same people with small diodes placed on her skin. There was a mirror beside her which she vaguely registered. She began to come to her senses more and saw that it was cracked.
"We're online," said the man with the ponytail. "Picking up the signal...Its go time."
Alex looked back at the mirror as it slowly mended itself. "That's impossible..." she said softly, touching the surface of the now unbroken glass.
She pulled her fingers away and realized that the mirror was coming back towards her. It seemed like the glass had melted without being hot, and was, in fact, quite cold. The silvery substance began to crawl up her hand, and then her arm, slowly taking over her body. A chill ran down her spine as it ran up the back of her neck. She was breathing sharply again, the mirror running down her injured arm and into the hole left by the bullet. It's going to take over my whole body, She thought. Oh, God, I'm going to drown in this shit! She tried to scream, but it was muffled as the fluid ran down the back of her throat.
******************************
She awoke in a pool of pink fluid, tubes coming out of her body. Alex thought she must've been dreaming, a nightmare. Perhaps the pill was a drug, I'm hallucinating, She told herself. She pushed herself to the top of the fluid and broke free of it, looking out at the awful sight before her. Pods, thousands, perhaps millions of them, all containing humans beings. Suddenly, the floor of her pod fell away and the fluid, and her naked, now detached, body, were sucked away. She flew through some sort of plumbing system and into a pool of something black and thick. It pulled at her as she struggled to stay above the surface. She had always been a good swimmer, but this wasn't water and for some reason, her muscles didn't want to work...
A huge metallic hand came down from the sky and picked her up. She looked at it in curiosity and fright, not sure what to do. If it was something evil, she could let go and slip out of its grasp and land back in the pool below, or continue and pray that it was not going to harm her.
"Hello, Alex. Welcome to the real world." Said a deep voice that she registered as that of Morpheus. He was in different attire, now, not like the fancy suit she had seen him in earlier. He was now dressed in plain grayish clothes, torn and tattered.
Alex lay on the cold metal floor as someone wrapped her in a rough blanket and picked up her limp form. She felt the darkness closing in on her vision, blocking out the images around her.
******************************
It was a long time before she awoke again, this time dressed in the same sort of shabby clothing worn by Morpheus. She looked at her arm and saw that there was no bullet hole, but a plug with a needle attached. She looked at it and felt it with her other hand, but didn't yet remove it. She felt the back of her bare neck and felt another plug there. She stopped wondering about herself, then, but where she was. The room was small and virtually empty, albeit herself and a small cot that she was lying on. The walls were bare metal with various pipes covering the length of the room. A door, or more a hatch, was on one of the walls to her left. She stood up and turned the valve-like handle and pushed open the door.
She looked around for any clue that would tell her where she was and what time of day. Nothing. There were massive computer screens and a circle of several strange looking chairs directly in front of her. The computers looked as if they had a virus of some sort; Green characters scrolled down the screens at a wicked fast pace, so fast that she could barely even register them as actual letters and numbers and not just streaks.
"Hiya, Alex." said a voice from behind her.
She didn't have to turn around to know that it was Track. "What is this place?" She asked him, sitting down in the chair in front of one of the screens.
"The Nebuchadnezzar." He told her.
Alex stared at him blankly. "The Neba-who?"
He laughed. "The Neb-uh-ca-nezz-er," said Track, nearly spelling it out for her.
"Ok, and what is the Nebuchadnezzar?" She asked, moving her hands towards the keyboard.
"I woudln't touch that if I were you." He said, putting his hands in his pockets.
She raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder at him.
"Oh really? Why not?" said Alex, questioning him. She was going to have her questions answered no matter what it took.
He shrugged. "Because I wouldn't want to have to explain to Tank how you messed up his control panel. Besides, shouldn't you be asleep?" He said plainly.
She shrugged, imitating his earlier moves. "I think I've slept long enough. Now, are you going to answer me, or not?"
Alex got out of the chair and approached him, standing only inches away from him and playing the "poor, defense-less, confused, spoiled brat" card in her favor.
"Ask Morpheus. He can tell you more about everything than I can." he answered.
"Surely you know your real name...can you tell me that?" she asked, looking up into his eyes.
He choked a little and then answered. "Jake. Jake O'Reilly."
"Hm, that's better. Thank you, Jake."
Their conversation was interrupted, however, when a series of alarms sounded throughout the Nebuchadnezzar.
"SENTINELS!" Yelled Jake, running out of the room to wake the others.
Soon after, they entered, led by Morpheus. The man called Tank sat down in front of the controls and punched in a few keys.
"Dammit!" he swore under his breath.
"Tank, how many?" Asked Morpheus.
He looked intensely at the screen and typed away on the keyboard, bringing up a map of the area and several machines which looked surprisingly like squid.
"About 5 of them, maybe 6," He answered. "Better get to the bridge, Captain."
Morpheus ran out, followed by Tank and one other man that she didn't know.
"Wh-what's happening?" She asked, trying futilely to appear calm.
Trinity came to her side and took her arm, leading her in the direction of her bunk. "Sentinels. I'm sure Morpheus will explain everything to you as soon as this is over. For now I want you to go to your bunk and stay there, things can get ugly up here, ok?"
Alex nodded and opened the door to her room, sideling in and sitting on her cot. She figured they were on some sort of ship, as it rocked and swayed during the ordeal. She felt herself drifting off to sleep again, despite what she had told Jake earlier near the controls. She didn't want to think about him at the moment, he was becoming a distraction. They had been so close back there, only inches apart. Despite trying to appear brave, she was afraid. She was in a new world where nothing made sense to her and all she wanted was someone to comfort her. I think I've found that person, She thought, remembering how badly she had wanted to fall back into Jake's arms and stay there for as long as possible. Get a grip, Alex, said a voice deep in the back of her mind. That's not the kind of person you are.
"Coast is clear," said Jake, standing in the door of her room.
She sat up and looked at him, her face emotionless. "Thanks, I suppose I'll be getting my answers soon?"
He looked at her, trying to search her. "Is something wrong? You weren't like this before?"
She shrugged again and leaned against the cold metal wall. To her dismay, he walked over and sat beside her.
"Do you want to tell me what's wrong or will Morpheus have to get it out of you?" He asked softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off. "Look, Alex, I'm sorry if I've done something to upset you but how can I make things right if you don't tell me what's wrong?"
Alex looked at the floor, purposely avoiding his crystal gaze. "Its not you, its me," She answered simply. "You shouldn't be apologizing."
Then, for no reason at all, she felt herself growing closer to Jake, or was he coming closer to her? A second later their lips touched softly and she kissed him as if she was kissing someone for the first time. His arms wrapped around her waist and hers around his shoulders, pressing him backwards onto the cot. So much for the person I used to be, she thought, kissing him again.
"I hardly even know you," She whispered, running her fingers through his hair. "But I feel safe here. With you."
Jake leaned up and kissed her gently, and then staring into her bright green eyes.
"And at the rate you're going, you need protecting," He laughed, kissing her chapped and dry lips again. "I've already had to save your life once...C'mon, lets go see what everyone is up to."
Alex pouted, but let him roll over so that he was on top of her. He stood up and grasped her hand, pulling her up with him. He ran a hand through his hair, a futile attempt to flatten it, and opened the door again.
The deck was alive with activity; The whole crew must be out here, She thought, taking a look around.
"Ah, Alex. Glad to see that you're awake. How are you feeling?" Asked Morpheus as she and Jake stepped in.
"Fine, thank you, but confused." She answered.
"Come with me, I'll tell you everything." He said.